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Should Minors be able to Purchase Birth Control Without Parental Consent.

QualityBirth control is a controversial issue when it concerns teenagers, who we often

consider as children. Teenage unwanted pregnancy rates are low in America- but the United

States still has the highest teen birth rate in the industrialized world(The American Civil

Liberties Union). The use of contraceptives has served to decrease the rate of teenage

pregnancy, but there are still restrictions on young girls, who are forbidden in purchasing

their own products. Despite the risk, birth control helps to develop responsibility in young

teens, it is much safer than the alternative, and it is effective.

Teenagers are not exactly known for their restraint and maturity. It is no surprise that parents

do not want their kids to have the kind of accountability that comes with being sexually

active. In a survey done by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, fewer than half of

high schools.

That it cannot guarantee complete protection, and only encourages sex in young teenagers.

(The American Civil Liberties Union) This steady decline can only be attributed to the most

recent and updated forms of birth control that effectively prevent unintended pregnancies and

STDs. A compromise raised by schools and parents is to offer contraceptives and sex ed

classes later in high school, but it may be late by then.a study done by the Disease Control

and Prevention shows 41% of teenagers in America.

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Proposals would radically alter long time standing public health law and put minors at total

risk.  Studies show that preventing teenagers from getting condoms and contraceptives unless

they tell a parent won't stop minors from having sex (The American Civil Liberties Union). 

It will just drive them away from the services they need to protect themselves, leading to

higher rates of unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases STDs and HIV.  For

these reasons, the leading medical organizations oppose laws that would require teens to

involve their parents before they can get contraception. Such laws would endanger teens'

health and lives and violate their rights.

Teenagers don't always become sexually active reason being they will go to a family

planning provider and get contraceptives confidentially. Some people say that allowing

teenagers to get contraceptives without first telling a parent encourages them to become

sexually active and that, conversely, requiring teenagers to tell their parents before they get

birth control would discourage sexual activity.  But research about how teenagers behave

flatly contradicts this theory.   In fact, on average, young women in the U.S. have been

sexually active for 22 months before their first visit to a family planning provider. And

studies show that making contraceptives available to teenagers does not increase sexual

activity.  Students in schools that make condoms available without requiring parental

notification are less likely to have ever had sexual intercourse than students at schools that

don't provide condoms confidentially.  Moreover, in schools where condoms and

contraceptives are readily available, those teens who do have sexual intercourse are have

doubled risk as other students to have used a condom during their last sexual intercourse.

The whole research shows that requiring teens to tell a parent before they can access

contraceptive services cannot reduce their sexual activity it will just put their health and lives

at risk.  For example, a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical
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Association looked at what sexually active teenage girls seeking services at family planning

clinics in Wisconsin would do if they could not get prescription contraceptives unless the

clinic notified their parents.

Cutting off teens access to contraceptives won’t stop them from having sexual intercourse, it

just drives them out of health workers offices.  When minors don't visit family planning

providers, not only do they forego contraceptive services, they also miss or dangerously

postpone treatment for STDs, routine gynecological exams, and other vital health care

services. 

When teenagers are prevented from getting contraceptives unless they involve a parent, these
alarming numbers are likely to increase.  Sexually active youth who does not use
contraceptives has high risk of getting pregnant within one year.  In a single act of
unprotected sex with an infected partner, a minor girl has a 1% risk of acquiring HIV, a 30%
risk of getting genital herpes, and a 50% chance of contracting gonorrhea.

Medical experts caution that when teenagers cannot obtain contraceptives without involving a

parent, they are less likely to protect themselves from unintended pregnancy and STDs.  For

this reason, the leading medical organizations, including the American Medical Association,

the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the

American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the American Public Health

Association, and the Society for Adolescent Medicine, among others, oppose laws that would

require teens to involve a parent.

These experts did explain in a letter to the Congress:

"Minors who be seeking services at federally funded programs are already sexually active.  

Studies do indicate that one of the main cause of delay by adolescents in seeking

contraception is fear of parental knowledge. Mandating the parental consent is like to

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discourage many minors from seeking family planning services, placing them at an increased

risk for sexually transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancies. These groups have been

vocal opponents of efforts to impose parental notification or consent requirements in

federally funded programs”

Virtually every region has passed policies and laws permitting minors to achieve care for

STDs and HIV without involving parents and most have expressed legal provisions

guaranteeing confidential access to family planning as well. In those states without express

laws, teens still have a constitutional right to access confidential care.  Forced parental

consent would represent a dangerous reversal of long-standing public health policies.

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Work Cited

The American Civil Liberties Union is a non-profit organization founded in 1920 "to defend

and preserve the individual rights and liberties.